Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant said Tuesday the Thunder need to be more physical against Blake Griffin and the Clippers after Monday’s 122-105 Game 1 loss at home Monday. (Sue Ogrocki/Staff Photographer)

OKLAHOMA CITY — By the time Kevin Durant spoke to reporters late Monday night following his team’s 122-105 blowout loss to the Clippers in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals, the Oklahoma City Thunder star might have already known he was going to be announced as regular-season MVP Tuesday.

It must have been difficult for him to feel any joy at that moment because of what his team had just endured. The final margin of its loss in front of THE home fans at Chesapeake Energy Arena was 17 points. But the Thunder were down by 29 in the fourth quarter.

“We came out aggressive and they hit shots,” said Durant, whose team will take on the Clippers in Game 2 at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night. “That kind of loosened our defense up for us. When a guy (Chris Paul) hits five or six threes in a row, you don’t want to give him some more. And that is when they started to get some stuff in the paint.

“The effort was there. We had good intentions, but they got hot. We have got to correct it. We have to make them miss next game and be a little bit more physical.”

There was an emphasis on the Thunder not making the Clippers feel their presence. Sure, the Thunder outrebounded the Clippers 47-31, but that was by far the most misleading statistic of the game.

Bottom line is, after OKC took an early 16-10 lead, the Clippers showed the Thunder who was boss. Especially Paul, who scored 32 points on 12 of 14 shooting from the field, eight of nine from 3-point range.

“We do need to be a little more physical with them and make them feel us a little bit more,” Durant said. “We just have got to be better, we have got to move the ball a little and also make some shots on our end. We are confident.”

As is the Clippers’ Blake Griffin.

“Just play more physically ourselves,” said Griffin, when asked how the Clippers would counteract a tougher showing by OKC. “I mean, both teams dictate how the game goes. And you look at their series with Memphis, it was very physical. They were grind-it-out games.

“And that’s how our games were with them (during the regular season). So if they up it, then we have to up it. We have to respond the same way that they respond.”

Other than their 17 turnovers, the Thunder were not all that bad Monday. It’s just that the Clippers put on a tremendous offensive display. They not only shot 54.9 percent from the field, they made 15 of 29 from 3-point range for a ridiculous 51.7 percent.

Chances of that happening again are not high. Coach Doc Rivers knows it. He also knows there are other ways to win Game 2.

“We can be a better defensive team,” Rivers said. “I thought we played good defense, I didn’t think we were great defensively.”

Believe it or not, Rivers believes the offense can improve in another area.

“I mean, we shot the ball; we’re not going to shoot that way every night,” Rivers said following practice Tuesday. “But there are things I thought we could do offensively a little better. We didn’t get in transition at all last night, for the most part, which is unusual. When you score that many points, you usually have a better transition game. … Last night, we just had a great offensive night.

“It happens, and I’d like for it to happen more. But I know at the end of the day you’re going to win games because you defend and you rebound. Last night we didn’t have to rebound because we made a lot of shots, so we didn’t need any offensive rebounds.”

Losing the first game of the series does not make this a dire scenario for Oklahoma City — a message coach Scott Brooks had for his players and, perhaps, the team’s fans.

“It’s one game,” he said. “It’s unfortunate that we didn’t play well, but it’s one game. It’s the first of four and we’ve said that many times. You’re going to hear that many more times. They’re up 1-0. We have to do a better job and make some adjustments.”

Particularly on defense.

“They were getting to the free-throw line, they were getting to the paint and they were making threes,” Brooks said. “We have to do a better job all the way around. We will get better. That’s not who we are.